A/N: Hello, readers! This chapter is short, but at least it's something, right? I've been meaning to publish this for days, and something always comes up. I finally made it! Enjoy!

Chapter 23

If Derek thought internship was going to be the most hectic part of his medical training, he was wrong. Residency came with a whole lot more crap to deal with. It's exactly what he enjoys about it, but also what makes it dreadful.

Maybe the fact that he has a five-year-old kid and a budding relationship with Meredith he wants to foster is not the best combination for his medical career, but he wouldn't trade this craziness for anything in the world, because in all honesty, he has rarely felt this happy before.

He has decided to carve out a very short date night with Meredith tonight, just a quick bite together after work, since the end of their shifts matches, for once. This morning he gets to enjoy breakfast with his son, too.

Derek is staring at David, drenching his pancakes in syrup, a blissed out smile on his face. Sometimes he simply likes to look at his son and see how much he changes day by day. He's sure he will miss too much if he doesn't.

"Daddy, can we have a movie night tonight?"

Derek sighs. "I will be back too late, D-Man, I'm sorry."

"Are you working lots tonight, too?" David huffs, clearly disappointed.

"I'm going to have dinner with Meredith tonight."

"Why?" David frowns.

"Because this is what grown-ups do when they like each other. It's called a date."

"Do you just do dinner?" David asks, clearly interested in the topic.

"You can do many things, David, not just dinner. It can happen at any time of day. Sometimes we did breakfast or lunch with Meredith, other times you can do fun things like going to the movies, bowling, taking walks… Anything fun you can do with another person, it can be done as a date."

Derek hopes he's not failing at this explanation, because David looks slightly confused. David stabs a piece of pancake, staring at it for a long time, then sighs.

Derek is sure something big is going on in his head and this will not be the last question on dating as soon as David has processed this for a little longer.

Yet, their usual morning routine has to take precedence to any more questioning, even though David remains pensive all through the car ride to the hospital.

In the back of his mind, Derek hopes David gets what is happening right now between him and Meredith, and he knows he has to find better answers for his questions really soon. Maybe he can talk about it to Meredith herself tonight at dinner. Maybe she has great answers.

Meredith is almost sad she's not working with Derek today, but she's grateful they can have dinner together tonight.

Derek is a good resident, and she's glad she can have him all for herself once or twice a month, but she's also happy he gets to experience other specialties, so he can get well-rounded in every aspect of surgery. He is one of her best students, though, so she's always happy to have him.

She sees him bring David upstairs when they both enter the building, and she decides to pay the little boy a visit as soon as Derek has dropped him off. She feels like she hasn't seen David in forever, even though it has only been a day or two.

Meredith's early shift has not been pleasant so far, and she's looking forward to going home tonight, especially since the end of her shift coincides with her date with Derek. Seeing David can only top her day.

She goes upstairs and sees the boy hang his backpack in the cubbies outside the kindergarten room, talking with one of the other little boys in his class.

Meredith asks one of the teachers if it's okay if she says a quick hello, and they're happy to send him outside for a few minutes before they start their work.

She expects to see a bright smile from David, maybe a sleepy one, but not the frown that greets her. A very deep, angry frown.

"David, hey. How are you? Are you okay?" she asks, suddenly concerned that something bad has happened or he's not feeling well.

"I hate you!" David shouts, making Meredith's blood freeze in her veins.

She stares at the boy's red, angry face, the way his eyes are flashing, and her heart twists in her chest.

"David, – "

"I hate you! You're a Daddy stealer!"

Her eyes widen at the statement. A sudden guilt washes over her.

"David, I don't want to steal your daddy," she says, weakly. Clearly, too weakly for David's strong personality.

"But when you go on dates Daddy can't play with me. And I wanna play with him. He's my only daddy! You're stealing him from me! He's mine!"

"I'm not stealing him. He'll be forever yours, I promise," she emphasizes, but the boy doesn't seem to listen

"No more dates!" he shouts again, before he leaves her stunned in the hallway, winning some sympathetic glances from the teachers.

Maybe dating Derek has to come with more rules. That's why, for the rest of the day, whenever she spots Derek, she has to hide. She doesn't answer his texts, ignores his pages, rounds the corner whenever he's coming close. It might be childish, but it gives her some time to think things through.

Except Derek is good at finding her, even when she tries her best.

That's how she ends up here. Cornered in a stupid elevator. That's what happens to Meredith when she's not careful. She loses focus for a bunch of seconds in her haze of surgery tiredness and Derek finds a way to slip through the crack of the closing metal doors.

Meredith sighs loudly as he settles next to her, pulling the alarm.

"Why are you avoiding me?" His voice is not angry, but genuinely curious.

Meredith shakes her head, hoping the loud alarm can cover her silence.

"I know something is going on, but I don't know what it is. Did I do or say something wrong? Something that upset you?"

"It's not you –"

"Yeah, right, it's not you it's me?" Derek rolls his eyes. "Please, I want the truth."

Meredith sighs loudly enough to be heard over the alarm. "Can we do this somewhere else?"

"Gladly."

Derek leads them towards an empty lounge, and he even allows her to sit on the couch and sulk for a minute.

"Meredith..." His voice is gentle, his fingers reaching out to touch the back of her hand. Meredith flinches involuntarily, and Derek's expression fills with sadness.

"I don't think it can work between us," Meredith says bluntly, and Derek's face falls. She can see his heart ready to break, too.

"What?! Why?" She can see the confusion in his eyes and she hates herself for it. Her eyes well up with tears. She hopes she can answer.

"Your time is precious. You have a career to foster and a son to grow. You should focus on that, not on me. You're wasting time and energy on me, and it's not...I'm not…"

"Meredith, you're worth it. You're worth bending over backwards for." Derek sighs loudly. "Also, I'm pretty sure aliens replaced you, because if it was really you, you would have made a dirty joke out of what I just said."

She lets out a sad smile as he tries to break the ice, but it lasts for a couple of seconds at best.

"What is the issue, Meredith? Really, not vaguely." His tone is firm, not leaving her any room for further avoidance.

"David needs more time to play with you. I'm stealing you from him."

"Are you serious?" Derek looks amused, and it sets off a little bit more anger in her.

"Derek, that's what he thinks. He hates me, apparently."

Derek shakes his head, a grin on his face. "Of course he doesn't."

"How do you know?" Her voice is strong, and he doesn't seem to care. "Did you see his face when he said that?"

"Plenty of times," he admits, still smug. The more she thinks about it though, the more she's sure he's not actually making it up to make her feel better. He can see it in his eyes that he heard the same words from David's mouth, too. "So we should break up because David wants more time with me?"

Meredith shrugs. It does sound slightly silly, but she's running out of ideas.

"What about we bring him with us to one of these dates, make it an outing for the three of us, so we can spend time together and David can spend time with us, too. Isn't that the best option?"

"Will he go along with it?"

"Meredith, if you promise him anything that sounds fun, he's in. And I'm in, even if it means I'd have to sneak in kisses to you while he's not looking."

Meredith lets out a sigh that is somewhere between relief and amusement.

"Should we try that?" Derek asks, squeezing her hand.

"Yes," Meredith replies, her voice soft but strong.

Derek's face lights up and he leans in, cupping her cheek and stroking her skin with his thumb. "Thank you," he says, before he pulls her hair behind her ears and then kisses her fiercely.

When they pull away Meredith feels wobbly, but not as sad as ten minutes ago.

"We'll tell David together," Derek says, his lips so close to hers still that she can feel his breath.

That's how they end up going to dinner all three of them that night, at the diner around the corner from the hospital instead of the new taco place they opened three blocks from there.

David looks sad as soon as Meredith joins him and Derek at their table, and he sighs loudly.

"Sorry Meri if I said I hate you," he mumbles, barely lifting up his eyes.

"David, of course I know you don't hate me, even though I was worried there for a minute. You seemed pretty angry this morning."

"I don't wanna lose my Daddy."

"And I don't wanna lose you two, so that makes us even. We'll surely work extra hard to keep each other, uh?" she says, smiling towards Derek too, hoping he got the message as well.

It's early in their relationship, but she's not ashamed to admit that she really cares for the two boys in front of her, carbon copies of each other. She can see this go somewhere, even though she can't clearly picture where.

For the time being, she wants to enjoy this new relationship development, wherever it might lead her. Even if it means dating at the zoo or in places with kids' menus.

A/N: I hope you liked this, even though David was not his happiest self, I like how vocal he gets in my head at times. Stay tuned for the next chapter, there's gonna be a surprise character coming!